1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a vehicle wiper apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A blade assembly for cleaning a windshield of a vehicle is an active safety device, as well as a device that provides vehicle convenience, which is installed to ensure a driver's view by removing foreign substances or rain drops on a glass surface of the windshield.
Generally, the blade assembly for cleaning the windshield slides on and contacts the vehicle. The blade assembly for cleaning the windshield includes a wiper strip that slides on and contacts the windshield and has rubber elasticity, a vertebra that elastically supports the wiper strip, and a retainer and a coupling apparatus as a coupling assembly for firmly fixing the wiper strip to a wiper arm. Generally, the retainer has a tournament structure, so as to accommodate a deviation in contact between a wiper strip and the windshield, according to a difference in curvature of the windshield between the wiper strip and the retainer. The tournament structure may have a space between the wiper strip and the retainer. Recently, as roads have been improved for high-speed driving, and the performance of a vehicle has been enhanced, a problem of a conventional blade assembly to clean the windshield has been raised. That is, when a wiper apparatus operates while a vehicle is moving at a high speed of 160 km or more, a lift may be exerted on the blade assembly for cleaning the windshield, and the blade assembly for cleaning the windshield may not properly contact the windshield. Thus, the wiper apparatus may not properly wipe the windshield. In order to solve such a problem, there is a need to develop a new blade assembly for cleaning the windshield that does not include a retainer structure.
Recently, a wiper apparatus, referred to as a “flat-blade type wiper apparatus” has drawn attention for preventing floating of a wiper while a vehicle is moving at a high speed. In the case of the flat-blade type wiper apparatus, a vertebra that supports a wiper lip is formed of a spoiler-integrated lever, and a connector apparatus for connecting a wiper arm to the wiper apparatus is disposed at a center of the vertebra. Korean Patent Publication No. 2008-0086455 discloses an example of the flat-blade type wiper apparatus.
A conventional connector apparatus has a structure in which a pair of members, respectively on left and right sides, are coupled to each other, with a vertebra therebetween. As such, with regard to a connector apparatus that is formed by coupling the pair of members to each other, the pair of members are coupled by using an additional coupling pin or in the form of male and female coupling shapes according to a shape of the connector apparatus. In the case of the connector apparatus, since a pin is inserted into a hole in a process of coupling two members to each other, assembly process may not be efficient.
The present invention solves such a problem. One or more embodiments of the present invention include a connector apparatus having a remarkably-enhanced assembly, by improving an assembly structure of a connector apparatus that is formed by coupling two members to each other.